Tokyo Water: Now With 200 bq/l of Radioactive Iodine

N-H-K has just reported that radioactivity readings in the water at Tokyo’s Katsushika purification plant now exceed the legal safety limits for infants.

Yesterday, the reading for radioactive iodine 131 was 210 becquerels per liter. Today it was 190 bq/l.

The legal limit for infants is 100 bq/l. For adults and other children, the legal limit is 300 bq/l.

According to the government, a small amount of the contaminated water is not dangerous, but continued consumption of it could cause health problems.

[Possibly relevant note: It rained yesterday in Tokyo.]

Update: TimeOutTokyo has pointed out that Japan’s standards for iodine-131 in drinking water are much stricter than those of the European Atomic Energy Community and International Atomic Energy Agency. Euroatom recommends a limit of 500 Bq/kg for adults, while the IAEA recommends 3000 Bq/kg.

Update #2: Radiation levels in Tokyo have dropped back to safe levels for infants, but Chiba prefecture has some problems now.

Chiba prefecture, adjacent to the capital, has detected radioactive substances in its water purification system in amounts above what is considered safe for infants (131 becquerels per liter of iodine-131), Kyodo said. On Wednesday, radiation levels in Tokyo’s tap water exceeded a safety level for infants and the government urged residents to not give tap water to children under 12 months old. Earlier on Thursday radiation levels above safety norms for infants were detected in another neighbouring prefecture, Saitama, but Kyodo said some two hours later that they had fallen back again.

No, but then I have never thought everything was “a-ok” in Tokyo. The place is a cesspool, like any overgrown metropolis with an immense ego and sense of entitlement (like NYC or LA). But I live about an hour north of it, and yes, aside from avoiding local milk and spinach for a couple weeks everything here IS a-ok, thanks for asking.

BTW – radiation levels in Tokyo are still lower than Denver, but I don’t see anyone asking “still think everything is a-ok in Denver?”

steve

But are there cesium, iodine and possibly plutonium or uranium particles flying around Denver?

http://tepido.org LB

Cesium and iodine probably not, due to the short half-lives of those elements. Uranium and Plutonium hell yes, where do you think the fallout from the above-ground tests next door in New Mexico went?

Rob A

This is pure ignorance.

The radiation in Denver is no less dangerous or different from the radiation in Japan. How it gets there is not important.

Furthermore, there are NO particles of Uranium or Plutonium floating around. They are among the densest materials in existence and if they were involved in an explosion, they were either consumed(in nuclear testing – which last occurred in the US over 19 years ago) or immediately fell-out of the atmosphere to the ground.

There is also the issue of the extreme temperature at which the Plutonium and Uranium exist within a nuclear reactor. If any of it should escape directly, it will more than likely immediately react with surrounding materials and change into something more stable, or at least not-Uranium and not-Plutonium. That is not to say that it’s not radioactive, but that it will form something entirely different.

saurabh

Err – what? “It will form something entirely different” – do you know what an element is? Uranium is uranium, plutonium is plutonium. The only way they can form something “entirely different” is via radioactive decay, not by reacting with surrounding materials. Also, their extreme temperature has little to do with their reactivity. The uranium in most reactors is already in oxide form to begin with.

http://tepido.org/ LB

This is pure ignorance.

Says Rob A, who then goes on to badly screw up physics. So tell me, if plutonium cannot exist outside a reactor, why is the entire planet dusted with it as a result of open-air nuclear testing??? And if Uranium also cannot exist outside the “high temperatures within a reactor” what the hell are the Nigerians (and others) mining? How do they put the uranium fuel rods into a reactor? Why were they worried about the uranium in the spent fuel pools at Fukushima? How do you build nuclear weapons if the uranium or plutonium needed for them can only exist at high temperatures inside a reactor?!?

This is pure ignorance.

ROTFLMAO

http://www.japanprobe.com James

No reason to panic and flee the country, if that’s what you’re asking.

It’s still below the legal limit for adults and has decreased in the last day.

I don’t expect it to exceed the legal limit for adults, but if it does, I’ve got plenty of emergency water and other drinks stored up.

Ken Aston

What about the prepared foods in convenience stores and restaurants? What about cows and pigs eating contaminated food and drinking contaminated water? It will be very hard to avoid health risks in Tokyo.

ponta

It depends on how much prepared foods in convenience stores and restaurants contain Radioactive Iodine and how many cows and pigs will be eating how much contaminated food and drinking and how higher the level of radioactive Iodine in water will rise and how long it will last.

Do you know how much, how many, how higher, how long?

Are you just talking out of fear?, or do you have scientific basis?

”
Professor Wakeford stressed that safe limits for radiation in food were kept extremely low, so people should not necessarily be unduly worried by reports that they had been breached.

For instance, the level of radioactive iodine recorded in water supplies in Toyko would result in an adult being exposed to far less than the level of radiation from natural background sources – even if they drank water contaminated at that level every day for a year.”

(Tokyo water ‘unfit for babies’ due to high radiation
By Richard Warry
BBC News)

Or maybe did you just use this situation to draw the conclusion?

http://www.rsiegler.org Ralph W Siegler

People keep making the mistake of comparing these ingestible forms of contamination to background radiation exposure and exposure limits to external sources, which is a totally different matter. Radioisotopes that can get integrated into your body (e.g. iodine, strontium which is mistaken for calcium by body, cesium mistaken for potassium) have very different (and much, much lower) thresholds of safety.

Activated charcoal is extremely effective at removing iodine from water.

ponta

I think Prof Wakeford is aware of the difference since

“Prof Wakeford said that provided the Japanese authorities acted quickly, most of the general population should be spared significant health problems.

He said in those circumstances the only people likely to be at risk of serious health effects were nuclear workers at the plant or emergency workers exposed to high levels of radiation.

The top priority would be to evacuate people from the area and to make sure they did not eat contaminated food.”

I took him as comparing the risks to the health wherever it comes from.

ponta

It might be a good idea to bring Geiger counter to Tokyo with you like this guy.

Perhaps a little off topic. I am planning to head back to Tokyo on Monday, we were forced to leave by my employer. Can I expect to find things like water, rice, diaper, etc for sale in stores? I saw several reports that hoarding had resumed and I’m just a little concerned over being able to obtain basic supplies for my family. Any reports from people still in Tokyo would be very helpful. Can’t really rely on the media for this kind of information.

ponta

Hoarding is still going on in Tokyo. I was surprised to visit a convenience store

As for water, radiation levels in tap water at a Tokyo water purification plant declined further today, remaining within the normal range for consumptionhttp://atmc.jp/water_tokyo/

(My guess is that if there is another attempt to vent steam through valves at Fukushima and if it rains, there will be a rise in radiation level in tap water again in Tokyo)

I bought two PET bottles of water yesterday at hanamasa in Tokyo , but it might depend on which shop you are going to visit in Tokyo.But there are PET bottles of tea and other kinds.

Rice is no problem. There are plenty at the shop.

As for diaper, sorry I don’t know, but I heard from a woman who also live in Tokyo that she sent diapers to the area stricken by disaster through an organization.
Amazon com seem to have lots of diapers to sell.

It’s becoming rare to get packaged foods like natto,” a popular fermented-soybean dish, said Shota Yamada, a 22-year-old office worker. “The absence of meat and onion makes it hard to cook even a curry,” he added.

“Water is not available….It’s hard to get batteries for a flashlight,” said Ideki Ikura, a 43-year-old taxi driver. “While I was driving my taxi around, I managed to get five bottles of mineral water, but I’m worried about what to do from now on,” he said. “I don’t want to give tap water to my 9-year-old son.”

Some stores have taken to rationing, particularly bottled water, which has been in high demand. An AM/PM convenience store inside the Finance Ministry has set a rule that customers can buy a maximum of two half-liter water bottles at a time. At some Ito-Yokado supermarkets, workers have begun setting aside two-liter bottles during certain hours for parents with infants.

There were no bottled water but there were bottled tea and other beverage.
There were some packs of milk.
There were meat and vegetables.
There were no natto but there were tofu.
There were diapers and toilet paper.

Jordan

Why be like this, Craig? Come on, James isn’t on some bullshit here. He’s not poo-pooing shit, but he isn’t giving the panicky a free ride either.

I think JP has been on point throughout this entire situation.

Maybe the French bashing was a little crunchy, but it was still on point.

Don’t be upset if other people aren’t as freaked out as you are. That’s just silly.

Educate yourself on the risks. Right now, the risk is elevated. I’m not gonna drink the tap water. That’s my choice, but I recognize that I don’t have to freak out about the situation. Doing so results in people pulling that 買いだめ bullshit again. Let’s not do that.

Besides no one wants to be seen as silly.

andrew

more worried about passive smoking

Rob A

Yes, absolutely. Everything is just fine there, with the exception of any damage caused by the quake or tsunami.

The amount of radiation is pretty well trivial, and the half-life of Iodine-131 has already expired since the initial and secondary explosions from the plant. This means the radioactivity of these contaminants will RAPIDLY begin to decrease until it’s no longer even a detectable issue.

There is no meltdown, and there is no danger from radiation outside of the plant area in Fukushima(which is still apparently not lethal dosages).

Don’t believe the hype.

weonbin

The human body’s radioactivity is around 8000bq for a 70kg adult. That’s 114bq per kg.
So that mean that there is only twice as much desintegrations per seconds in the Tokyo tap water as in your own flesh.

The dose you would receive from that depends of course of the type of desintegration.
The Becquerel is not a unit to measure the dose.

RMilner

The problem with iodine in water is that in growing children it will be taken up into the thyroid gland much more than in adults. That is why iodine tablets are given to children in this circumstance. The stable iodine in the tablets “crowds out” the radioactive iodine in the water.

The half life of the iodine isotope is only eight days, so the radioactivity of the water will decline rapidly so long as new atoms are not added to it.

The black cloud at the Fukushima could is worrying since it indicates a different kind of fire and possible release of radioactive particles.

Ken Aston

I would love to see some balanced evaluation of the risks here. Obviously the threat in Tokyo is much greater than we have been told until now.

Kevin not kevin

Here you go – this is your balanced evaluation of risks:

Yesterday, the reading for radioactive iodine 131 was 210 becquerels per liter. Today it was 190 bq/l.

The legal limit for infants is 100 bq/l. For adults and other children, the legal limit is 300 bq/l.

According to the government, a small amount of the contaminated water is not dangerous, but continued consumption of it could cause health problems.

That tells you everything you need to know. The measured levels of iodine are still within safe thresholds for adults, and they are elevated for infants. The news said tonight that you should never stop feeding your baby formula at these levels. Short term exposure is acceptable, but long term exposure is not recommended. The government has also recommended that infants not be fed using tap water for the time being. That means using bottled water if it is available in your area.

steve

There has been no talk about the particulates that are no doubt flying in the air in Tokyo and other areas. Once inhaled, it is in your system far longer.

ponta

“There has been no talk about the particulates that are no doubt flying in the air in Tokyo and other areas”

As of 24th, Tokyo’s tap water contained 79 becquerels of radioactive iodine per kg, below the limit for infants.

Rob A

“Once inhaled, it is in your system far longer.”

This is completely false. Inhaled radioactive sediment is far more dangerous, because the skin blocks much radiation not ingested/inhaled. Inhaled radioactive sediment can irradiate soft and sensitive tissue inside the body much easier than that on the skin.

The thing about inhaled particulates is that: once they irradiate you, each particle is no longer radioactive. This is because in the process of releasing the ionizing radiation the particle(atom) shifts to a stable state and is no longer radioactive.

The airborne particles across Japan are also mostly less irradiating than spending a day in Denver, Colorado or on Kitt’s Peak in Arizona.

For god’s sake, it is NOT a dangerous or panic-deserving situation.

http://transmissionsfromtokyo.blogspot.com/ Alex

Indeed.

This news essentially indicates that the water is polluted and that we should take precautions. It can’t be a major revelation to anyone, can it? A tsunami hits, an earthquake strikes, a power plant leaks… There was bound to be some pollution and side effects to all this.

Today the U.S. Department of Energy released data recorded from its Aerial Monitoring System as well as ground detectors deployed along with its Consequence Management Response Teams. The information has also been shared with the government of Japan as part of the United States’ ongoing efforts to support Japan with the recovery and response effort.

You can see how much radiation was measured in areas around Fukushima and Tokyo.

http://hanlonsrzr.blogspot.com Mr. S.

I’ve done worse to my body, so wouldn’t worry… but I have a nine-month-old at home, here in Tokyo. Not %$#@ing happy. I’m supposed to reconcile myself to finding bottled water for him, and his breastfeeding mother, for the next what, 10000y (or the duration of our stay, whichever is shorter)? Now I have to start second guessing my decision to stay, whether to fight with the native-wife again about leaving. Bloody hell.

manimal

Is bottled water available in Tokyo, or is it still being hoarded by people who don’t need it? I’m guessing you can’t simply boil water to remove something like this, so yea it seems pretty critical for people with children. I’m curious if the water is unsafe to drink is it also unsafe for bathing? Young kids are constantly getting dirty and I don’t think it would be possible to find an alternate source of water that large.

Craig

I imagine all those old bags who raided all the supermarkets and bought up all the water last week are bathing in it now

http://hanlonsrzr.blogspot.com Mr. S.

Another aspect to this story, which is not being played in the media that I can see, is that we were informed a DAY later: not immediately. Typical. Although I am aware that several day’s exposure at these levels is irrelevant, we have once again been shown that the bureaucracy/government will not tell us anything in a timely manner. The ‘precautionary principle’ would demand what in these circumstances: never drink tap water or give it to babies, or leave? After all, if we cannot trust timely information for this we have to assume we cannot trust it for anything.

http://tepido.org LB

If it helps, and I can appreciate the concern a parent would have for their child, there is a great deal of discussion of this going on right now on the tube.

Short version: the limits set by the Japanese government (such as the 100 bq/l line on water for infants) are conservative and based on the experiences and lessons from Hiroshima, Nagasaki and Chernobyl. It is based on yearly consumption. In other words, water right at the limit of 100 bq/l, if drunk every day for a year, will be safe. Water at 200 bq/l, even if drunk every day, will cause no harm if drunk for less than 6 months.

In other words, there is no immediate danger to babies even if they drink raw tap water. Parents should be aware of the numbers and of what they are putting in their children’s mouths, but also of how long their children are exposed.

Give it a couple of weeks – if the numbers stay high then switch to bottled water. There is still time. No need for immediate panic or cutting one’s kids off from water.

Jordan

Being hoarding again since recently… :/

http://theinconvenienttruthonwhaling.blogspot.com/ kujirkira

Iodine has a half-life of 8 days. So 2 weeks once the initial period is over (may already be declining?)

manimal

So don’t bath for 8 days? That stinks.

Kevin not kevin

You drink your bath water? That’s nasty.

manimal

All kidding aside, I think it’s a legit question. When you immerse your body (or your infants) in water does some of the water enter the body through pores or other orifices? I’ve seen a few other people asking this on other websites but I haven’t seen any information on wether this is something to consider or not.

Kevin not kevin

A doctor on TV said that taking a bath is fine, but I don’t have a specific link for you at the moment. I think the main concern with radioactive iodine is ingestion of the material so that it starts to damage your thyroid.

Think of it this way: in a country like Japan where tons of people take baths, I think the government would have been quick to warn everyone if it was really a problem. The fact that they didn’t tells me that it’s most likely a relatively minor concern.

On TV, a researcher says there is no problem in taking show and bath,no problem in brushing and gargling.

irishtimes

Thursday, March 24, 2011

“Several radiation experts have also played down the impact of the radiation and its impact on the country’s food supply. “Perhaps if you were drinking 20 litres a day, in which case you’d die of water intoxication, it could be a problem,” said Robert Gale, a specialist in nuclear accidents.”

Experts say little is known about how eating radiation-contaminated food affects people in the short- and long-term. But experts who have spoken with CNN say that the contamination levels reported so far appear to pose very little risk.

Dr. James Cox, an oncology professor at the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, said he believes the radiation levels measured in these products pose a “nonexistent” immediate risk to humans, and “very low” long-term risk.”

The half-life of the Iodine-131 radiation is 8-10 days, and it comprises a big part of the current scare. The cesium is quite a bit longer, at 30-something years, but it is largely not present in the remote atmospheric contamination as it is heavier and falls out faster(nearer to the incident).

Radioiodine of this sort can be guarded against by using KI or another stable Iodine supplement. This will ‘take the place’ of the radioactive Iodine isotope in your body so that your glands cannot absorb it and cause health problems.

Again, unless your bed is in the reactor itself, you won’t have to worry about 10k year decay times.

Furthermore, there will not be any contaminants in the water after a point where they can clean it or the Iodine decays away.

http://theinconvenienttruthonwhaling.blogspot.com/ kujirkira

CNNs been running with this all day, in the brief stints when they’re not rambling on about Libya.
According to them, everyone in Tokyo is being poisoned.
Also beware the black cloud of death currently coming out of Fukushima.
Oh, and people in Tohoku don’t need any more food or help — Japan is a wealthy country.

Tokyo metropolitan government has announced that they will distribute three 500ml bottles of water for each infant in affected areas in Tokyo.

manimal

Wow, that’s pretty cool.
Do you have to do something to get it or will the water just show up at our homes?

Kevin not kevin

They said on TV that that water will be heading to your local shiyakusho (city hall), and that the shiyakusho is trying to figure out how to distribute it. You should probably give your shiyakusho a call to see what they are doing.

steve

…….and where does said water actually come from? The same source as the tap water I imagine.

Professor Wakeford stressed that safe limits for radiation in food were kept extremely low, so people should not necessarily be unduly worried by reports that they had been breached.

For instance, the level of radioactive iodine recorded in water supplies in Toyko would result in an adult being exposed to far less than the level of radiation from natural background sources – even if they drank water contaminated at that level every day for a year.

governments have been known to move the goalposts of unsafe thresholds in the middle of the game. I dont see why this government is any different. i recommend you panic.

http://hanlonsrzr.blogspot.com Mr. S.

I received some information from an acquaintance who works for Atomic Energy Canada Limited, which I summarize below. It’s his word and AECL’s (which has had minor incidents of its own), not mine, and I did not ask for his permission to put his name on anything, so I cannot supply it or references. You should be able to corroborate all of this from credible online sources if you need to. Take it for what it is worth.

– there is a natural base level of radioactive iodine and cesium in all drinking water, the later from weapons testing
– iodine has a half-life of 8 days; in 40 days it has all decayed
– the Japanese legislated limit is 300 Becquerel/kg
– the current level of iodine in Tokyo water would give you 0.5% of 1.33% of the radiation in a chest X-ray if you drank only that water every day for a year
– Canadian and Japanese limits are based on recommendations of the ICRP (International Committee for Radiation Protection)
– both use more conservative doses than the base recommendation, Japan being more conservative than Canada
– drinking water at the allowable limit would expose you to about 4mRem total in a year
– this is an insignificant amount of dose when compared to dental or chest x-rays (as much as 300 mRem per x-ray)
– the dose received by individuals through natural radiation is about 300mRem per year
– the legal limit for Nuclear Energy Workers in Canada is 5 Rem/year or 5000mRem/year

“Don’t worry. Be Happy?”

richard green

several natural springs in Europe are 2000 Becquerel/L and one has been measured at double that.
“High concentrations of radon can be found in some spring waters and hot springs.[51] The towns of Boulder, Montana; Misasa; Bad Kreuznach, Germany; and the country of Japan have radium-rich springs which emit radon. To be classified as a radon mineral water, radon concentration must be above a minimum of 2 nCi/L (74 kBq/m3).[52] The activity of radon mineral water reaches 2,000 kBq/m3 in Merano and 4,000 kBq/m3 in Lurisia (Italy).[49]”http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radon

Aya

Am not very happy with all the panic news, but needed to comment.

Some of the commenters above keep saying that levels are not dangerous, saying it’ll be less than taking an x-ray or flying or etc. The thing which, frankly, worries me is that it is additional radiation, not the “instead” one. So drinking tap water wouldn’t be the “amount of radiation you get in a year”, but “amount of radiation you get in a year PLUS bonus amount”.

zarghev

“So drinking tap water wouldn’t be the “amount of radiation you get in a year”, but “amount of radiation you get in a year PLUS bonus amount”.”

Exactly. Three other “this-is-not-dangerous” dubious comments:

1) “This is not more dangerous than natural radiation in such or such area”
Except there are many areas where people live and actually have a much higher cancer rate – so this proves nothing, unless you actually show cancer statistics are normal for people who have lived their entire life in that area.

2) “This is less than the radiation you get from an x-ray”
Except that the radiation from an x-ray is not necessarily concentrated. The problem with iodine 131 for instance is that it ends up concentrated in the thyroid gland. So maybe this part of your body will get 10 times, 100 times, 1000 times ??? (I could not find the figure on the web) more radioactivity than other part of the body, and why you have a much increased chance of thyroid cancer (but probably not, say, lung cancer). So this is entirely different, and the comparison is flawed.
This is EXACTLY why the water legal safety limits are so low.

3) “The measured radiation in water does not amount for much”
Except that the measured radiation is an average on some sensors for some sample. Where does the radiation comes from? Is it 100% guaranted that radioactive elements will get uniformly spread in the water, or could it be the case that if you are unlucky you could get a larger dose? Will the 10 million Tokyo inhabitants, all, without exception, get at most that amount of iodine in the water, not more?
Maybe radioactivity is spread evenly in water; but that’s not really the case for air.

http://theinconvenienttruthonwhaling.blogspot.com/ kujirakira

Except there are many areas where people live and actually have a much higher cancer rate – so this proves nothing

It proves people live in many areas with higher radiation levels without having panic attacks. The second part of your sentence is unproven speculation which you yourself should demonstrate a connection exists.

Except that the radiation from an x-ray is not necessarily concentrated

Not only are xrays concentrated in location, but also in time. It would take months to a year to get the equivalent dosage from ingesting water as it would 1 xray in 1 moment of time.
A large amount of radiology these days is done using nuclear reactor fission products as well.

Except that the measured radiation is an average on some sensors for some sample

Which is why the safety levels are set so low.
In Japan it’s 300, in Europe 500, IAEA recommends 3,000.
If you have an infant to look after, that’s one thing.
Otherwise, some people just seem predisposed to hysterics.

Years from now, some psychology majors are going to have a lot of data to sift through studying cases of mass hysteria and panic.

http://theinconvenienttruthonwhaling.blogspot.com/ kujirakira

So drinking tap water wouldn’t be the “amount of radiation you get in a year”, but “amount of radiation you get in a year PLUS bonus amount”.

And it’s the same way with xrays, CT scans, flights… those are all on top of whatever you normally get in a year as well.
Up to 100mSv there is no distinguishable connection to health. Even then we’re talking about fractions of percents… or the equivalent of smoking 14 cigarettes.http://www.physics.isu.edu/radinf/risk.htm
And you won’t even be close to approaching 100mSv unless you’re working in Fukushima.

Alternatively, there is the Banana Equivalent Dose (BED). Did you know bananas have 100 Bq?
The horror! For people here, that means bananas are radiation poisoning, right?

zarghev

“Alternatively, there is the Banana Equivalent Dose (BED). Did you know bananas have 100 Bq? The horror! For people here, that means bananas are radiation poisoning, right?”

This is exactly the kind of disinformation that entirely discredit an argument.
The potassium from the banana does not accumulate in the thyroid gland, unlike radioactive iodine. Moreover, the excess potassium is excreted.

The main effect of Chernobyl was an increase of thyroid cancers in children, and specifically because the thyroid does accumulate the iodine – and NOT an identical increase of all cancers because of increased radiation exposure.

Thus comparing the potassium from the banana and the radioactive iodine from water is comparing apples and oranges – the levels at which potassium-40 and radioactive iodine are dangerous are different, and CANNOT be compared by ONLY comparing measurements of radioactivity.

http://theinconvenienttruthonwhaling.blogspot.com/ kujirakira

And yet the point remains the same — the levels are minimal.
It’s as comparable to Chernobyl as it is to bananas.

Porembski

I hear a lot of discussion about safe levels for infants, but what about pregnant women? My wife is 2 months along and we live in Nagaoka City in Niigata Prefecture, where they also found trace amounts of radiation in the water.

http://tepido.org/ LB

According to what was said by the head of the Japan Pediatric Association on TV the other night, there would be no added risk to the fetus if the mother drank tap water with the levels of radiation that were being talked about. Nor risk to a baby being nursed by a mother who was drinking the water. Japanese standards are extremely strict to begin with (1/10 of the amount declared as “safe for adults” by the IAEA), and if the head of the Japan Pediatric Association and the head of the Hibakusha Medical Research Hospital from Hiroshima both say “this is safe”, I would think “this is safe”.

But that’s me, looking at the numbers rationally. What is more important is that your wife and you are comfortable with what she is drinking. If you can replace tap water with bottled water or other bottled drinks (not beer!) for drinking purposes, and that makes her feel better, I’d say “go for it”. She is doubtless under enough stress as it is without being nervous about drinking something that might harm the baby, and that stress could be far more problematic to your baby than the tap water.

Hey, regardless of your own opinion, you’re just going to do what she says anyway, right?

(Voice, I say, voice of experience talkin’ here, son!)

ponta

According to Japanese society of obstetrics and Gynecology, if a pregnant woman drank water of 500Bq/kg, which is higher level than detected from the tap water, for 280 days, she would receive 3 mSv of radiation, quarter of which will be secerned as breast milk, but it is far below the limit—50 to 100 mSv for a baby.

Wow, thanks for the quick response and good advice. Good news is, more beer for me!

ponta

On the 16th anniversary of Chernobyl, the Swedish radiation authorities, writing in the Stockholm daily Dagens Nyheter, admitted over-reacting by setting the safety level too low and condemning 78% of all reindeer meat unnecessarily, and at great cost.

Unfortunately, the Japanese seem to be repeating the mistake. On 23 March they advised that children should not drink tap water in Tokyo, where an activity of 200 Bq per litre had been measured the day before. Let’s put this in perspective. The natural radioactivity in every human body is 50 Bq per litre – 200 Bq per litre is really not going to do much harm